


Fond Wounds

by Anonymous



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, OCs - Freeform, it's not slash, musings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-17 12:17:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11275176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: "Jason Todd falls in love.It’s easy for him, Bruce observes. Like water, or like breathing. His heart bleeds each and every time, but he can’t help it."





	Fond Wounds

_He loved cars and **girls** and getting into fights…Neapolitan ice cream and the color green…and most of all he loved the thrill of being Robin_.

 

* * *

 

Jason Todd falls in love.

It’s easy for him, Bruce observes. Like water, or like breathing. His heart bleeds each and every time, but he can’t help it.

He falls in love each time.

The first that Bruce knew of was a girl in his art class. Her pale hair always tangled in a bun, and she always managed to look like a half-frightened deer. But Jay loved her with the shy love of a twelve year old, with the reckless idea that seventh grade lasts forever.

Then there was Rena. Oh, but did that boy moon over Rena. She was sharp, but in that intriguing sort of way. Like a brambleberry bush and its thorns, all brown and dry but full of promise. She hurt him, in the way young girls always do. Too inexperienced to really care, at least properly. Jason was devastated, but he was still a child. Childhood love becomes lodged in you, a tender memory that loses its pain as time goes on. Eventually your wound goes golden and you look back fondly.

There were others, a rainbow of girls ranging from interests and hobbies and, hell, once he hit high school, philosophies. Jason always had girls around. He liked girls, genuinely liked them. And girls liked Jason, because he treated them like people. His soft words and smiling eyes helped some too, but Jason was never interested in fooling. He was upfront and clear as glass and just…Jay.

There was Kiara, who became synonymous with loose-spined books and ebony colored hair. Bruce nearly had a heart attack when he saw Jason peeking at her over his book, mid study. He looked at her not with the wide-eyed wonder of Rena, but with that comfort of steaming coffee and warm socks. Bruce didn’t know what to make of it, really. But he had to acknowledge that Jason was growing up.

There was Chris, with her scabbed elbows and knees and dusty sport shoes and devil-may-care attitude. She popped her gun and Alfred couldn’t stand her. Bruce found that amusing, and somewhat comforting at the same time.

Jodi was the freshman Vice President, and set that boy’s heart aflame with ideals. Everything was a goddamn ordeal with that girl, whether it be saving the whales or the soup kitchen. Her intensity caused Jay to be withdrawn and tired. Bruce almost stepped in. He didn’t know if his boy could draw the line, he toed it so many times with life in general. But no, November came without Jodi. It’s a funny feeling to be proud of someone for breaking up with a kid; but Bruce felt…vindicated, somehow. Like Jay was learning from life what he should.

Rebecca was a nightmare. The first time Jason brought her home Bruce caught the light glinting off her nose hoop, and he put his foot down.

“Not her,” he told Jason. He was firm but he hadn’t really expected Jay to listen. He never did.

Rebecca was two weeks of metal, dark poetry, and nihilism. Not to mention the reintroduction of cigarettes. Bruce almost smacked them out of Jason’s hands when he saw them again, but the boy had assured him that he was just holding them for Becky. Bruce knew it wasn’t true. He bought his lie. He wonders why he did to this day.

Lorraine was a cheerleader, and, frankly, “out of my league,” as Jason put it. She was as sweet as they came, and Jay healed what havoc Becky caused. It wasn’t right that Lorraine was a rebound, but it wasn’t as if Bruce could throw stones.

Gloria. The girl two years older than him, the girl who danced to Latin beats and came with belly shirts and knowledge that Jay was aching to have. Bruce stayed out of it. He shouldn’t have, but at the time he realized that Jason was fifteen. He couldn’t swoop in like last time, as Jason had accused him of doing with Becky. Gloria broke Jay’s heart in a way that Bruce could not comprehend, did not truly understand. He was fifteen. Fifteen year olds weren’t supposed to care this much.

Figures that Jay would be the exception.

And all the while, there was Momoko. Poor Momoko. Momoko was every study date, every platonic pizza parlor, every homework buddy that a girl didn’t want to be. Jason never knew. Bruce wondered what would have happened if he had. Momoko showed up, after the funeral. She shakily handed over his schoolbooks, along with the red cap he had left at her house. Her face was pale and her eyes were red, worn, and exhausted. Even Bruce, in his state of disassociated grief, saw her.

“I…” she said, swallowing. “I have more,” she notified him, closing her almond eyes. “More reminders.”

Reminders of Jay.

Bruce didn’t suppose he deserved them.  
But Momoko, being the young woman she was, so strong, so true, insisted. She kept the green jacket though, the one Bruce had bought Jason before their annual camping trip. The two of them got out of class early, and Jason hadn’t wanted his friend to be cold.

Jason Todd falls in love.

It’s easy for him, Bruce observes, as the Red Hood plays patty-cake with a young victim. As he carries a dying prostitue to the hospital. As he teases a young street boy to watch after his siblings, handing over groceries. Love isn’t just romantic, after all.

And even now, it’s easy for him. Jason falls in love with people, with ideals, with hope. It’s like water, like breathing. No matter how much he bleeds, he can’t help it.

He falls in love each time.

That is why, Bruce supposes, Jason keeps on. He’s too much in love with Gotham, the true Gotham, to go back now.

Jason Todd falls in love. It’s who he is.

**Author's Note:**

> I got thinking of how Bruce says Jason liked girls and I was like “well who are they?" Also, not all these girls are his girlfriends (he’s good but he ain’t that good). They just are people he loved, that Bruce at least took notice of.  
> And before anyone starts screaming, this story follows the quote, so to Bruce's knowledge Jay liked girls. So it follows Bruce's perspective, that's all.


End file.
